Laughs, "Ok, couldn't resist on this last post about the trip. Last text post, there'll be more videos uploaded when I get to it, having a lot of #Loops problems with both Android and desktop uploads, so those videos will happen at some point… Prolly."

Any how to get serious and talk about the trip.

First leg, Huntsville
In a lot of ways this was the most stressful, starting with the drive itself, after all, Tunnel Hill, IL or thereabouts, where Vik's family lives, a mere 160 miles, is the furthest I'd travel thus far, so I had some range anxiety to get over. But, when its your grandmother's 105th birthday party, you find a way to do it, its a milestone and who knows how much longer she'll be here. She's surprisingly strong still, although she does need a nap every two hours or so, no idea how she managed the whole party.
Speaking of the party, not really fun for me, I'm not a people person, and boy was that party peopley. Plus I know so few, I haven't really done a good job of keeping up with the family, and its grown, I'm the first kid of my generation by a decade, my dad was the first son of seven (and for a laugh, my uncle Peter filled his name tag out to read #6 Peter), and I was the first child born to his generation, the next was in the early eighties, so I have cousins who have kids, and I think a few of those kids have kids. I guess that makes me an uncle? Great uncle? As if I didn't already fell old.
Any how, so yeah, hung out with a small amount of family at Grams before the party, then the party, and then hit the road the next morning for…

Leg 2, Myrtle Beach
Well, if'n we want to get pedantic, Surfside Beach, South Carolina, just south of it. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort, and while calling it a resort is a stretch, it was a great stay, and one of the best of the whole trip. The restaurant kinda sucked though, went their the first night for a burger and fries, the service sucked, and while the burger was fine, it was nothing special, but it sure was over priced. And then there's the breakfast buffet that you have to pay for, I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that its the standard IHG breakfast that's free at most of their hotels. Seriously, don't both with the restaurant, there's plenty of better food right down the street, Bruiser's Burgers was great, and right up the street is Manny's Deli, both I highly recommend. There's also plenty of pancake house/diners right there by the hotel, though I didn't try any as I'd prepaid for breakfast at the hotel.
That said, the reason for going there wasn't food or sightseeing, though we did that, Gay Dolphin might be one of the strangest stores I've ever visited, whole in the wall cross between a thrift store, jewelry store, souvenir store and I'm not sure what else. Also got a historical tour in, though the main reason I was there was to scatter my husband and mother in law's ashes. Being scattered in Myrtle Beach was her last request, something my husband hadn't gotten to before his passing, and considering how close he was to his mother, I felt it only made sense to scatter some of his there with her. The original plan was to do that off the piers over the course of two days, but considering its a violation of Federal law, that had to get scratched, so we scattered them at Myrtle Beach State Park instead. Most were scattered along the trails throughout the woods, we spent a rainy day roaming them for a couple hours, though we did discreetly scatter some from the pier and also some on the dunes.

And then there was one…

One last leg, leg 3, Lancaster
There was actually supposed to be a fourth leg originally, three would be a visit back to Jersey where I used to live, but I scratched it, I felt the trip was just getting too big, too expensive. Prolly wasn't a bad idea though, as this was when the nor'easter hit. Yeah, an electric car, the Jersey shore and a nor'easter, that combo couldn't possibly be bad, could it?
This one went different than planned. Some went as planned, since we don't have a Chevy dealer worth a damn in STL, I got my Bolt serviced there. And we spent tons of time hanging out with my mom, couldn't really picture it, I tend to keep to m'self and all, and listen more than I talk, but what do you know, really had a great time. Also went and looked over houses at Lancaster Log Cabins, really love their tiny homes, you would think 400sq ft would seem too small, but its all in the layout, and theirs are really nice. The railroad and railroad museum didn't happen because they were closed for the first half of the week. Also Zook cabins doesn't seem to have a display area so I scratched that plan.
Yeah, less than a perfect visit, but the important happened, which along with those things, was seeing how I felt about the area. I'm not leaning heavily towards relocating there, though cost is still an issue, I could grab land near Vandalia, IL for half the cost, but I like the idea of being close to family, hours instead of days close.

Of course all good things have to end sometime, so after five nights at a Fairfield Inn that I'd not recommend, I hit the road for two long days of driving home. Mind you, I could've made it shorter, I could've paid the tolls and taken the PA Turnpike home, but where's the fun in that? Instead I took mostly PA 30 to New Stanton, with a charge stop on the way at Chambersburg, slow, scenic, my idea of fun. At that point we jumped on I70, and mostly a straight shot home aside from going around major cities to avoid traffic and/or road construction. First night went far too long, and involved going through a construction zone that's terrifying to drive at night, especially when your night vision sucks, but what few hotels at my charge stop were mostly sold out, and stupidly expensive for any remaining rooms, so an hour or so drive to Reynoldsburg was required. Couldn't charge at the hotel as expected as the chargers use some weird network I've never heard of that basically doesn't work. That's a double edged sword, inconvenient to charge in the morning, but as it happens, the nearest Ionna was one of their showcase rechargeries, so it was cool to visit one. Lounge isn't real impressive, badly lacking in food options there for whatever reason, but still a neat place. Also let me avoid a lot of the rush hour traffic too. Nothing much of note until I got home, aside from Electrify America being a dumpster fire as usual.

Annnd, that's about it, spent last night and today getting the most important stuff done, and starting to recover from the trip. Over all, a great experience, and any range anxiety I had is gone. I could use a good alternative to A Better Route Planner, that thing glitched up so much on the trip, but its really the only option for EV route planning, TomTom is supposed to be able to do it, but their app swears Chevy doesn't make electric cars. If that ever gets fixed, maybe I'll try that as an alternative.